The Assistant
by LeSunkist
Summary: When Pepper is forced by her employer, Anthony Stark, to find herself an assistant to help her, she could never have guessed who she was hiring and the effect they would have on future events. Starts off in Iron Man but then sorta speeds through until it gets to Avengers. XX Discontinued and being rewritten /s/9252767/1/The-Assistants XX
1. Prologue Part 1

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts was the most sought after assistant in all of the east coast of the USA. In almost the whole of the USA. But she was forever stuck with the even more famous, or notorious depending on one's opinion, Mr Tony Stark. World renowned womanizer and richest gun-maker on the planet it seemed. Pepper, as he so affectionately called her, was, for the most part, able to keep up with the women he brought home every night, the partying, the bad press, and the mess of the parties – 'but every Santa needs their helpers'. Or that was the philosophy that Anthony Stark lived by, apparently.

So this was the one and only reason she was sitting through these unbelievably predictable interviews. Predictable because either they would be men and hit on her, or they would be women and Tony would hit on them. It was all very tiring. She'd get the same amount of rest and less of a migraine by taking the day off. But she couldn't. Not when Tony Stark was your boss.

But she was eventually surprised and pleased when a young girl walked through the office door nervously and sat on the chair opposite to Pepper and adjacent to Tony. Pepper did not make these seating arrangements.

She had mid-length, wavy blonde hair that was kept out of her face with what Pepper assumed was hairspray and simple white clip at the back of her head. Her attire consisted of a pencil skirt that stopped just above her knee, a simple button shirt covered by a simple vest, that she assumed was once covered by the simple jacket she held over her arm. And all in lovely neutral colours.

Simple? Yes, but all the same, a woman after Pepper's own heart. The only thing she worried about was whether or not the girl was strong enough to handle the job-description. And strong enough to handle Tony's charms and his alcohol.

Pepper gave her a polite smile and would have started off the interview had Tony not interrupted her.

"So tell me your name, dear?" he said quickly, his brown sparkling as the blush rose in her face. She had the most open and bashfully honest amber eyes. The quivering girl thought that if he looked any closer he would see the specks of green in them as well.

The girl almost didn't speak. But she had planned for this and so had a small almost invisible head phone tucked in her ear. From there her far braver, but less qualified, friend could push her through her insecurities.

"_Speak, damnit!_" she barked.

"Isabeau!" she nearly squeaked.

"_And now with sophistication and dignity, please_."

"Isabeau Asmundor," she said again, pretending to be more confident than she felt.

"Wow, what an unusual name. Don't you think it's unusual, Miss Potts?" Stark was quick and Isabeau was not. She did not feel comfortable in this situation.

"Yes, very interesting, but I don't think that we should hire anyone based on their names," Pepper spoke quickly and politely, but even Isabeau could hear the motherly undertone without straining too much.

"_So, do you think he's whipped or she's whipped?"_

And apparently so could she.

"So why did you apply for the job, Miss Asmudor?"

"_Don't screw it up Izzy, I need this job too,_" came the quiet voice of her friend in her ear. Oh, Mel, so supportive.

"Well, I just finished college and I didn't really know what to do-."

"What did you do in college?" Tony asked suddenly.

"_Answer him quickly and continue with what you were saying!_"

"Arts and Commerce," Isabeau answered quickly, "So, as I was saying, I didn't know what to do because I felt that there was still so much I could learn, but I didn't know where I could go-."

"You didn't find your professors adequate enough for you?" That was Stark, once again.

"They were fine but there was only so much they could teach me in controlled and safe environment."

"Controlled and safe? Wow, you and I had different college experiences!" Tony chuckled out.

"Please ignore Mr Stark for the moment. Go on," Pepper tried to vie for control. It was always like Tony to push away all the people that would actually help him and make his life easier. It was a surprise that she was still here; anybody else would have walked away years ago.

"So I discussed this with a close friend of mine over drinks and-."

"_Don't mention me! Be the shepherd not the sheep, come on, Izzy!_"

"Well, anyway, I just felt that there was more that I could learn and one of my lecturers told me about the interviews you were having and he suggested that I give it a go," Isabeau finished lamely, feeling very deflated and belittled by the smirk on Anthony Stark's face.

"_Give it a go? Come on, Iz, where's your game face-._"

"So you were drinking with your professor? Now that sounds relatable," Stark commented.

"Excuse?" where exactly from his ass did he pull that one from?

"Well you said that you were having drinks with your friends and that one of your lecturers told you about Miss's Potts never-ending search for an assistant. One can only assume that he or she was drinking with you to come to that conclusion."

"Not everyone comes to that conclusion, Tony, now please keep _your _questions until the end while _I _ask _my _potential new assistant questions," Pepper stood her ground, silently fuming with embarrassment at Tony's crass behaviour.

Tony would have liked the go on, in spite of what Pepper said. He liked to rile her up, and because she was just so uptight it unbelievably easy. However, he decided against it as the nervous sitting on that little chair seemed to be silently fuming as well.

"_Keep your cool, babe, that's all you have to do. The chick loves you, this is a test,_" Mel whispered in Isabeau's ear soothingly. Isabeau saw the logic in the words and took a breath to calm herself.

"So what makes you think you would be able to cope with the busy schedule of myself and Mr Stark?" Pepper asked politely. She had more or less decided that she rather liked this girl. She was someone who tried to be neutral, tried to keep the peace, just like Pepper. If Pepper needed help with anything it was with keeping the peace in the household.

"Well, I work well under pressure and I am quite skilled at defusing any kind of situation. Most recently at my school, there has been a lot of hostility between some of the students and for the most part I acted as mediator, but I was able, with help from others of course, we were able to, um, keep the peace, so-."

"So shouldn't you be looking for a job as a negotiator?" Tony could not help himself. Isabeau walked straight into that one.

"That's what my professor told me, and I said that I am not a fan of negotiating and gambling with people's lives, sir-."

"_Calm down, Izzy, it was a legitimate question, don't lose it-._"

"So you wanted to help the negotiator, I see. So not wanting to get your hands dirty, just an accomplice?"

"That's not what I meant-."

"No I understand. I don't shoot the guns I just sell them, right Pepper?"

"I did not want to be a negotiator at all, that's not what I want to do with my life-."

"So you'd rather help people run their own lives?"

"Tony, enough?"

"That's a legitimate question, Pepper; I want to know what she wants to do with her life."

"Yes, well I would like to know why she hasn't walked out already, Tony, anybody else with half a mind would have already with your behaviour!"

"My behaviour? What am I, twelve? And are you implying that Miss Asmundor doesn't have half a mind?"

"I said nothing of the sort!"

"Yes you did, you just said that anyone else with half a mind would have left, thus I come to the conclusion that you-."

"_Oh my god, fuck this shit! Shut him up already, my ears hurt!_"

"Your assumptions have never done you any good-."

"They do me the world of good, I'm always right-."

"_They fight like a married couple!_"

"There's a difference between thinking you're right and knowing you're right-."

"Except when you are right and you know it-."

"Well, there's this thing called modesty-."

"_Actually it's called having his head up his ass!"_

"What good would modesty-."

"You are impossible-."

"_What is happening, Iz? The signal is getting weaker!_"

"Oh, I am very possible-."

Isabeau stood up very suddenly. She couldn't handle all the voices in her head. She could not talk down her superiors. It made her uncomfortable. But there bickering was putting her on edge, and all she needed now was alcohol. Strong alcohol. By the bottle.

"Excuse me!" she yelled out and then paused. The two fighters were looking at her curiously. "I came here because I wanted to work with Pepper Potts and because I need the money and because my friend needs a job too but she is unqualified for the position. Your work place is amazing and huge, but I would rather keep my job as a bartender in Brooklyn talking down drunks and assholes rather than deal with an egotistical, self-righteous, self-obsessed, narcissistic, rude, unhelpful and uncouth, filthy rich prick as yourself, _Mr Stark_. Good day!"

She walked-well actually she stormed out of the office with rage threatening to bubble over inside her head.

"Don't say a fucking word, Mel, not a _fucking word_!" she snapped and ripped out her ear piece as she walked towards the elevator.

"I waited all day for this fucking job,... I was the only one not flirting back with that asshole," she berated herself. She would be able to ride these rage fumes for a good week before she would come grovelling back.

So she didn't expect Pepper Potts to come running down the corridor calling out her name.

"Miss Asmundor! Wait, please!" she yelled and stopped looking slightly out of breath but smiling all the same.

She could feel herself shaking. She was going to break any moment and start apologising profusely. Luckily Pepper stopped her before she embarrassed herself.

"I want to offer you the job."

She was dumbfounded for a second. She almost expected Mel to start yammering in her ear to say something until she remembered she had taken the bothersome ear piece out. But she could guess what Mel would be saying.

"_Tell her to go fuck herself! We can go somewhere else!_"

"Why?" she said instead.

"Because, as you said, you were able to keep your cool for the most part, and besides Tony was being completely irrational and I'm sorry that I let the situation get away from me. So I want you to come and work with me, and I'm sure we can find your friend a job as well, if that's what you want. As far as I'm concerned, you are highly-qualified and completely fit for duty. But you must know that you might be seeing Mr Stark on a daily basis, but I will keep the meetings with him to a minimum."

Isbeau tried to remember how to breathe. This was everything she and Mel were hoping for. How could she say no? How could she say anything-she had to focus on breathing for the moment?

"So, what do you say, Miss Asmundr?" Pepper sounded hopeful. As in, she hoped Tony had not screwed up the only opportunity she had to get a decent assistant.

"I would love to work with you!" Isabeau tried not to squeal. Mel would kill her for backing down, but she didn't care. Anything to get out that dump of a bar.

"Good. Now we have your contact details, if need be we will send a car over to fetch you. You start next Sunday. E-mail me if you have any questions-oh and send over your friend's resume so I can see where we can put her."

Then Pepper just walked off smiling and went to tell Tony off as much was in her right for being such an unhelpful prick.

Isbeau closed her eyes, and waited for the elevator door to ding open. When it did she was not surprised to see her dishevelled friend, Mel, in the elevator waiting for her.

She walked in and slumped on the wall next to her without saying a word.

"So did you get the job or what?" Mel asked. Isabeau just nodded in response.

"Did you get me a job?"

Again, she nodded.

"Drinks?"

"Yes, please."

**So there you go...tell me what you think? Just so you know this is like and epilogue and it's like before Iron man, or sorta during depending on your opinion. So, you know, tell me what you think and all that jazz...**

**TOODLES!**


	2. Prologue Part 2

It can be said that Tony was not often left speechless. In fact it could be said that he was almost never left speechless. He always had something to say, a quick word, a funny remark, a witty retort. His brain was always a buzz with things to say.

However the young and, at first, nervous looking girl took him completely by surprise by yelling at him, insulting him and storming out of his building without caring for the fact that she had lost the job. Or he thought she had lost the job. Pepper seemed to disagree.

"She's perfect," he heard her whisper softly, almost as if she was whispering into her lover's ear. He felt suddenly jealous. And dumbfounded. He began to understand what stupid people might feel like when he saw Pepper jump up and run out the door after the interesting little girl and he was left in silence to ponder what might be his new employee.

Isabeau Asmundor. An incredibly odd name. Unique. Very fine features. Maybe she modelled? That wouldn't explain her nerves, though.

He pulled out his phone-a little toy he created all by himself-and searched up her name.

"Nothing?" he said, dumbfounded, yet again, "how can there be nothing on her?" He began to dislike this girl. Not her personality or her looks, but her incredible anonymity.

He grimaced as he was forced to use 'Google' to search up her name. And it came up saying '_Did you mean Isabeau __**Asmundr**__?_'. He could almost imagine his kindergarten teaching cooing the sentence at him.

He clicked the link, berating himself for his stupidity, and saw that, again, there was nothing on her. But her surname piqued his interest.

Apparently it was Norse for god-protector. Odd. He scrolled through his phone trying to find some decent record of her, and almost did, when Pepper burst through the door, slightly red faced with a lop-sided grin.

If she had sounded like she was whispering to her lover before, now it looked like she had met up with him whilst trying to stop the Norse girl. Tony Stark felt jealousy yet again. She never got this flustered over him, no matter what he did. In fact, try as he might, she usually never raised her voice or got angry.

He didn't realise he was pouting like child while he thought about his new employee.

"What are you so sad about?" Pepper said keeping the grin on her face, "I have a new assistant. This is what you wanted all along, isn't it, Tony?"

He mumbled something that sounded like, "Why couldn't you pick the model?" but she couldn't be sure. She was relishing in the fact that this girl had already gotten under Tony's skin and she was going to make Pepper's life so much easier.

Isabeau sometimes envied her friend's unending well of self-confidence. She never cared about what others thought of her, and she tended not to judge others on what they looked like. She judged people by their actions. She was a firm believer of 'actions speak louder than words'. And at times her sacred philosophy would get both herself and Mel in trouble. But Isabeau was always there to get them out of any trouble. That was her talent.

Mel's full name-which was something never to be uttered in her presence-was Melody Nova Lachly. Her mother-who was a person never to be spoken about at all-was a somewhat disturbed woman with a troubled past and had overdosed when Melody was 16. 7 months into her pregnancy she was admitted to hospital where they had to pump her stomach for alcohol and her drug test came back positive for heroin and marijuana. They performed an emergency C-Section, certain that the child was dead, but classed her as 'a miracle child' since there was nothing wrong with her. She was a perfectly healthy baby. Unfortunately for Melody her mother was under the influence when deciding her names.

Mel never spoke of her mother, and Isabeau never pushed her. She had been to Mel's childhood home. She could only imagine what might have gone on in there. But Isabeau herself had a generally happy childhood. She had a mother he was affectionate and cared for, and treated Mel like a second daughter. And she never got bullied at school because everyone was so scared of Melody.

The real reason why Melody was able to survive the womb became apparent when she turned 14, and she began to notice changes in herself that no one else had. She became distant and angry and stopped going to school. And when her mother died, she went missing for two years.

Izzy had never been so alone when Mel left. She had to learn how to get tough, which was difficult. She hated conflicts. She wanted to be the peace-keeper. Instead she became invisible.

But Melody showed up again, on her front doorstep, as it were, looking dishevelled and sad, but somehow much stronger than she ever was before. She never spoke of where she went or what had happened, and Izzy never asked.

To most it might seem a lifetime ago, but to her and to Mel, the past was just as clear as the present and always seemed a constant in their future.

But it was hard to dwell on the past when Melody smiled wickedly as she downed another shot of tequila, her long brown hair quivering as she laughed, and dark brown eyes twinkled with glee.

She was taller Izzy, and had visibly more muscle on her. She was a strong woman, body and mind, and would rather fight than talk. She had an animalistic feel about her, almost vicious, one might say. But Izzy knew that even though she acted like a lion she was actually more akin to house cat. She treated everyone as they treated her. That was not always necessarily a good thing.

She wore tight boot leg jeans and large black T-shirt with a picture of some now obscure rock band from the 80's on it. Izzy was still wearing her interview clothing, and grimaced as she, too, took another shot.

"Oh my god," she rasped out, "why do I always do this with you?"

"Because you're stupid, just like me!" Mel laughed out heartily, "And because we're celebrating!"

Izzy smile in spite of the foul taste. She never got drunk often-neither of them did-but it still burned going down her throat.

"Oh my god, Iz, hearing you yelling at Tony Stark totally made up for all the bar dances I had to do to pay for that stupid ear piece!" Mel barked out.

"I didn't even realise what I was saying until I was out of the door! I don't even remember what I said!" Izzy could feel the blush cover her face. She would never live this down.

"Oh, I do! I remember because right after you threw away the expensive ear piece as if we might not need it again!" She looked serious but she was never really angry with Izzy. It was why they worked so well together.

"I believe you called him narcissistic and a filthy rich prick? You called him something else, but those were my favourites!"

More laughter. The music was loud, and the others around them were either sitting at round silver tables listening to people giving crappy renditions of their favourite songs or they _were_ giving crappy renditions of their favourite songs.

Thought Izzy and Mel couldn't judge; they'd both had their time in the spot light regularly, and were now an expected event. It was nice to be loved, as Mel often said. When they weren't singing their hearts out they were hustling boys at shots-since neither of them could ever really get drunk-and that was their unofficial second job.

"Hey, we can quit our second jobs now!" Izzy voiced her opinion with relief. She did it when she needed money, but she was not a fan of alcohol.

"Still afraid you might drink too much and get drunk?" Mel snickered. Izzy just glared at her and took another shot to prove her wrong. The move might have impressed the brazen woman if she had not breathed in some of the tequila and started coughing violently against the table.

Melody proceeded to burst into hysterics and knocked the bottle of the said alcohol off the table. The sound of it breaking to pieces was so loud that it silenced the entire club so that all anyone could hear was Izzy dying slowly.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing? Do I look like a maid!" the bartender yelled angrily at them. The floor was carpet for some unfathomable reason.

"Oh, shut up, Phil, we can pay for your cleaning bill," Mel shrugged him off.

"Was that before or after we pay for the ambulance to take me to hospital?" Izzy ground up, face red, eyes watering glaring at her best friend.

Mel smiled her infamously wicked smile. "No, I'll pay for his carpet after we sing!"

It started off as a whisper but by the end she started chanting 'sing' to egg on all the guests. They were all regulars and knew the duo well enough. So they all started chanting as well.

Before Isabeau knew it she was on stage next to Melody and they were belting out the lyrics to 'We Will Rock You'.

**So that was quick wasn't it? Yeah well I had two days to think about it, didn't I? :P Anywho, please review, it makes me happy, it really really does. Tell me what you thought, tell me what you think is going to help and i'll tell you if you are a good guess or not**

**TOODLES**


	3. Chapter 1

**why hello there! how is everyone? :) Tell me...by reviewing...but seriously tell me what you think! I'm like an actor, I must gage my audience's reaction to see which way to take the story. I apologise for any typos or missing words, i am trying. Hope you enjoy!**

The house of Tony Stark was magnificent. It stood on the edge of cliff overseeing the ocean. The sun shone warmly against her skin. It made her want to sit on one of the comfy velvet covered couches and bake in the sun.

Tony wasn't too hard on the eyes either, and thus she shamelessly flirted with him when Pepper wasn't in the room, and shrugged off his not so subtle propositions. She could definitely get used to this line of work.

Melody Lachly had never finished high school. Her fragile emotional state at the time could not handle that kind of chaos. Even thinking about it made her head spin. So she just started working and she never really stopped. Now at age 22 she was a skilled waitress, librarian, cook, paper girl, bartender, contortionist and cleaner. The contortionism came from a short stint in the circus.

She was going through a phase at the time.

Miss Potts had decided to use her skills as cleaning lady to keep Mr Stark's house clean and help him in his workshop too. He was very touchy about his workshop and about giving her a password for it.

"I don't like people in there, Pepper, it's my happy place," he had when she cornered him, Mel in tow.

"I thought your bedroom was your happy place?" Mel snickered, unable to stop herself. Tony smiled at her moxie.

"Only at night. I could give you a tour?" he offered, winking at her.

"A day time happy place _and _a night time happy place? Isn't that a bit excessive?" she asked instead of answering 'Yes please'.

"Living in excess _is_ the American Dream," he replied quickly.

So, of course, deciding that the friend of Pepper's new uptight assistant wasn't so bad, he pretty much gave her whatever Pepper told him too.

At the moment Tony was working on his 1932 Ford Flathead Roadster while Mel cleaned all of his cars. He had far too many cars, and every time she told him this he just laughed and told them that they all had a special place in his heart. She would reply that he had no heart. They would laugh again.

She had cleaned three cars in hour –since the cars weren't actually that dirty- and to her they were just cars- big orange car, a blue car with racing stripes that reminded her of Austin Powers and a nice looking silver car- but just cars.

"I have a question, Mr Stark, if I may," she teased, pondering on the cleanliness of his car. Tony turned down the music and said, "Shoot."

"You have a lot of cars," she stated, and he laughed.

"Makes it easy to get me a birthday present."

"Playboy bunny car seat covers?" she asked with a serious face. He nodded and chuckled. She watched him as he fiddle with some wires that were sticking out of what she assumed was the dashboard.

"Do you ever actually drive any of these cars?" she asked him seriously. She couldn't understand why he was hunched over the old flame covered car instead of driving the chick magnets she had been waxing.

"Yeah," he said distractedly, "Audi to work, Shelby Cobra on weekends, Saleen to night outs and Tesla to show off."

Mel looked around to the different coloured cars. Then she looked at a machine-something that Tony called 'Dummy' -try to turn on the blender, and then have the contents of her slushie spill all over itself.

"I didn't understand a word you said, but okay. I'm gonna go and clean the dummy bot."

"I told you not to make him do anything for you," he replied and stopped what he was doing on his car. He just watched her as she tried to get the frozen drink off of Dummy's frame as it moved around, almost trying to get away from her. She, just like her friend, was a new oddity in his home. It was true; she was just as attractive, even in her vomit green jump suit and black commando boots. She seemed more like the women he often slept with.

Confident and intelligent with wicked sense of humour and views on life that matched his own. Though he doubted it would be that easy to bed her. She was smarter than she let on-not academically, but she was a worldly sort of girl. He liked it. He still didn't know who she was. She introduced herself as 'Mel' and did not talk about herself at all. Pepper wouldn't give him her resume.

She finally finished cleaning off the malfunctioning robot and contemplated whether or not to deal with the actual mess-everything else upstairs.

"Come sit with me," Tony stopped her before she walked out.

"Excuse me?"

"Just sit for a moment," he said again. She looked at him warily but did as he said. If he tried anything she would have to decide whether or not to let him or break his nose. She walked around to the passenger seat and looked at him expectantly.

"Tell me about yourself," he said smiling. He kept smiling for about 2 minutes while she looked back into his eyes disdainfully.

"What's your full name?"

"Mel."

He just sighed. She was distrusting and she wasn't trying to hide it.

"Where were you born?"

"Brooklyn."

"What did you do in high school?"

"Stuff."

"Any boyfriends?"

"Yes."

"Parents?"

"Dead."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Don't be."

"Ha! Got you to answer with more than one word!" Tony yelled suddenly, making Mel jump and let out a small squeak of surprise. He burst out laughing at her reaction and she just glared at him and made to get out of the car.

"No, wait! Seriously, you're starting to come off as more uptight than Pepper. What is it about you that you wanna keep so secret?" He reached out to grab her hand, but she easily dodged him.

"Well, if I told you then it wouldn't be a secret, would it?" she explained simply, and proceeded to walk upstairs to finish her job.

Yep, Tony thought, there is definitely something going on between those two. He waited until she was out of hearing when he said, "JARVIS, search up Isabeau Asmundor for me and look for her known accomplices."

"You make it sound as if she were a criminal, sir?" came to monotonous voice of his personal computer.

"Just trying to prove myself wrong, JARVIS."

Cleaning the rest of Tony's house was long and tedious and mind numbing. But she wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere. She wanted her brain to take a break; just go through the motions trying not to think about the feelings of regret, fear, suspicion and animosity that Stark's simple questions had brought up. It had been a long time since anyone had asked about her. Most were smart enough not to even try.

She was Mel. That's all they needed to know.

Tony was a smart guy, but he was a real idiot too. Funny, but an idiot. She just knew that he was probably doing a major background search on her, but she didn't care. Her files had not just been sealed, they had been destroyed and replaced by something easier to explain. No one knew of her mother, and no one cared.

Her two years in cognito? Her mother died, no one could blame her. Izzy knew the truth, or at least she thought she did. She didn't ask, even though Mel knew she wanted to with every fibre in her being. There were just some things she had to keep to herself. Things that no one could even understand.

Tony would search and he would find nothing, just like he would find nothing about Isabeau if he tried. There was nothing on her. She was perfect. She had to be, so she could keep their secrets. And such secrets. Mel felt them on her back, weighing her down like a tonne of bricks. She wished she didn't have secrets. She wished she was like everybody else. She wished she was normal.

But she wasn't, and she never could be. It took her two years to accept that after her mother died. She didn't care anymore. There was nothing she could do, so what was the point in wishful thinking?

She wondered vaguely what Isabeau was doing, but assumed that she wouldn't be quite going through the interrogation that she had walked out of.

Pepper really did enjoy Isabeau's company. She was quiet, but extremely helpful when dealing with people who were fed up with Tony Stark's nonsense. She handled everything quite well. She was so frustrated when she left Tony's mansion-he liked his new cleaner far too much for her liking-but when she came to her office and saw Miss Asmundor waiting patiently at her desk, her day immediately brightened. So punctual. And the neutral coloured clothing was on show again.

She and Miss Asmundor spent the next 5 hours planning Tony's trip to Las Vegas for an award ceremony, and his trip to Afghanistan to showcase the new Jericho missile.

It didn't take so long because it was difficult, it just took so long because Pepper felt the need to micro-manage Tony.

"If I don't plan everything there is a chance of him doing something stupid," she said. Isabeau understood this. She had to know everything that was going to happen, like running an event. Yeah, the event called 'Stopping Tony from embarrassing himself'.

Yes, she was never good at telling jokes.

So after almost an entire day of working, Izzy was surprised when Pepper suddenly stopped and said it was time for a coffee break. She looked up at the red-headed woman and finally noticed how tired she looked. And a little bored too. She must always be on edge, working for Tony. From Mel's short text messages it didn't look like he was the most predictable of people.

"Miss Potts, I hope I'm not bothering you?" asked a portly, grey-haired man as he walked through the door.

"Of course not, Mr Stane. What can I do for you?" Pepper replied politely, ever the perfect worker bee.

Obadiah Stane was Anthony Stark's surrogate father. He was almost as powerful as the younger of the two, but had a much firmer grasp on reality than Tony could ever dream of. And he was highly skilled in the art of manipulation and deceit. He glanced over the room and saw the pretty blonde haired girl looking up at him with awe, having realised who he was. He smiled at her and watched a blush creep up her neck.

"Can we talk outside for a moment?" he asked looking back at Pepper. She nodded him and followed him out of the office.

"What is it, Mr Stane?" she asked again. The man always seemed like he was up to something, and if he needed anything, he generally did it himself, or would ask Tony, and Tony would ask her.

"I just have a few questions about the new workers you and Tony hired recently."

"Of course. I'm not sure how Miss Lachly is going with Tony, but Miss Asmundor so far has a been a godsend, as you can imagine," she smiled easily, thinking of her new assistant.

"I'm sure she has. I'm just concerned, because when I tried to run a background check, it was a little spotty."

"Spotty?"

"Well, for one, it's like parts of their lives are just missing. Records just gone. For Miss Lachly it's the two years she vanished when her mother died of an overdose."

"Yes, but it is understandable, you must admit."

"And did you know that neither of them have ever been into hospital? Not even three years ago when they were in a car accident. According to the police report they could find no reason as to why the car engine caught fire. The only explanation they could come up with was the either it was sabotage or the engine magically caught on fire."

"I know, Mr Stane. I have done the background checks as well. There are a few anomalies, but they have no criminal records, and Miss Asmundor is highly qualified for the position."

"And what of Miss Lachly? She didn't finish high school and she never went to college. I don't want another law suit on our hands because of Tony's behaviour, you know how he is, Pepper."

Oh, she thought, there it was. He thought the person he hired was going to cause a rift in Stark's life and therefore his. He never wanted his best friend's boy genius to be unhappy in any way-or cause him undue trouble.

"I assure, Mr Stane, Miss Lachly is highly qualified for her duties in the mansion, and to handle Tony. In fact, I was going back to check up on him and give him the flight schedule for the next few days," she replied reassuringly. He looked at her warily but nodded and smiled.

"Could you send me the schedule as well, Pepper? And contact Col. Rhodes to let him know when to meet Tony."

"Already done, sir.

"Of course it is. You're the best, Pepper. Tony takes you for granted!" he chuckled and walked off. She turned walked back into the office and called Isabeau out. It was time for them to have a serious heart to heart.

"Oh my god, Miss Potts. Was that Obadiah Stane? I've always wanted to meet him!" Isabeau gushed as she held all of Pepper's bags and folders in her arms. There was still a blush on her face.

"Yes, well he seems quite interested in you, too."

"What? What do you mean?" She had nearly said 'did he say something about me?', but she already felt like a school girl, no need to let Pepper know the extent of that feeling.

"He was very interested in your past, and your friend's lack of records. I told him there was nothing to worry about. There is nothing to worry about, right?"

Isabeau fought hard to keep her face the current expression. If she slipped and let her guilt show, they would both be screwed.

"No, there isn't anything to worry about. Mel is fine, and I'm fine. We've never been arrested for anything-."

"I know, we do screen the potential employees, you know."

"Oh, yes, I know, me and Mel, we just-well, it's like, we've had a bit of a rocky road, you know? A lot of people don't hire her for anything because she can be a little feral when she believes people are being unfair, or hypocritical. I'm surprised she hasn't texted me to tell me to help hide Tony's body in a ditch somewhere-well actually, I'm not surprised, they're kinda the same, so I'm sure they should be fine," she giggled a little through he stuttering speech. She would not tell Mel anything of this conversation.

"She also gets a little feral when people start asking about her past. I mean, she barely tells me anything, but I don't ask, you know? She's just Mel," again she giggled nervously.

"Well, what did she do when she came back after running away?" Pepper asked gently. It had been bugging her the entire time that she knew so little about the people she was hiring.

"She came to live with me and my mother, because she didn't really have anyone. She didn't go back to school though. But it was okay. She just went around doing odd jobs. And living with us isn't really how I would normally describe. She just, sort of, came and went. She always came back, but it was like she always _had _to go out and do something. She couldn't stay in one place for more than a month. That's why she's worked everywhere," Isabeau smiled as she thought of Mel's circus phase. It was good for a while, until they started asking questions too.

"And what about you?"

"Me? Well, I just was there, you know? When she needed me, I was there. Because we're good friends. I never knew my dad, but it's okay because my mom was pretty cool. And having Mel there-when she was there-was like having a sister."

At this point they were in the car with a coffee each in their hands.

"I see. You need to tell me everything, your life sounds so interesting," Pepper said with a genuine smile.

Everything? No, not quite everything, Isabeau thought silently, and began to lie to the nicest person she'd met in a long time.

**BAM! cliff hanger! sorta. now please tell me if you really liked it! I would appreciate some motivation - i just started school again- and for all you avengers fans (aka everyone) out there, be patient, all our favourite boys in red, white, blue, green, purple, yellow and black will be featuring shortly...**

**TOODLES**


	4. Chapter 2

**Okay, so I finally decided what my OC's romantic interest is gonna be! Took me ages, it really did. Can you guess who's going with who? Anyway, hope you enjoy this little golden nugget-and let me know if you have any queries or love for it :P**

The next week, for the most part had been uneventful. Or at least, as uneventful as one can get when one works for Tony Stark.

Stark Industries was throwing a fundraiser-a ball, where all the money would go to all the children's hospital from Brooklyn all the way to Manhattan. It was a big event and so Tony was planning to be as late as he could with bringing down the wrath of Pepper Potts.

He sat in his beloved Ford Flathead and waited for the predictable rhythmic footfalls of his new cleaning lady coming down the stairs and into his workshop. He was started to look forward to their short meetings. She was unafraid of him, much like Pepper, and so she gave him a piece of his mind without fear of being fired. She was far too much like himself for him to fire. It was nice to have another genuine friend.

She walked down the stairs and opened the glass door of his workshop before yelling out a not-so-quiet hello and began the job of cleaning out his cars-he had used them recently to 'show some tourists around town'.

"Oh Melody," Tony sang, "the sound of your voice-it makes me think -of lemon and honey tea."

He had very soon figured out why he didn't want her seeing her resume. He would hide his life to if his name was Melody Nova Lachly. Seriously, was her mother high when she picked her name?

"Oh, Stark," she sang in reply, "If you call me Melody again-I'll bite your head off- like a shark."

He laughed hard at that. She seemed to fixate on vicious animals and what they could do to his anatomy should he continue using her full name. It was cute. She was like a little kitten. Though somehow he figured if he riled her up enough she just might make good on her threats. The youtube video he had managed to find of her throwing some guy halfway across the room and subsequently attack the camera ran seemed to support that theory.

"Oh, why? I think Melody is lovely name. It promotes happiness and well-being."

"Your well-being will be endanger if you continue on this path, Stark. The only thing you'll be singing will be the hospital-bill blues."

They laughed together at her serious threat and started to get her equipment out to being cleaning the car.

"Come sit with me," he said loudly. She stopped what she was doing and looked over at him warily.

"Really? You want another heart-to-heart, Stark?

"No, just come and sit with me, I just wanna talk about me for a second," he said smiling at her. She chuckled at that. Talking about himself, now that she could believe.

She acquiesced and sat down next to him in the Ford, yet again. The seats were very comfortable, and from this point she could see all his giant holographic screens that she generally had fun walking through when he wasn't looking. Childish, but fun.

"What do you know about cars?" he asked her.

"I thought we were talking about you?"

"I'm getting to that. Seriously, what do you know about cars?"

She sighed again. He wanted to get to know her all the time. It was annoying. People who got to know her always wished they had listened to her afterwards.

"Nothing."

"Really? Didn't you do any work on any cars as a roadie? I thought the circus taught you all sorts of life-ow!" he yelped out as she landed a swift punch on his shoulder.

"I warned you, Stark," she said smiling. He smirked and conceded as he rubbed his shoulder.

"So, why do you want to know the extent of my knowledge on cars?" she asked. She had been less curt with him over the week. It was fun. She never actually told him anything, but it was fun teasing him.

"Well, you've been cleaning my cars for the last week, I figure it's about time you knew about them," he said, matter of fact, and got up and walked over to the bonnet of the old car should be. He motioned for her to follow and she looked at him strangely before joining him over the engine.

"Now this is my pride and joy. A 1932 Ford Flathead Roadster," he said as he affectionately stroked the engine, "85-hp, 221-ci V8 engine, 140 lb-ft of torque at 1500 rpm, and with a body made of an alloy I created on my own. This was car my dad worked on, and I'm still working on it."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Compulsion? Who cares? Isn't she gorgeous?" Tony gushed over the car as if it was his lover, and Mel began to feel very awkward in the current situation.

"Should I give you some room, Mr Stark?" she teased, but was partly serious. It was not in her job to description to clean cars while Tony dry humped the engines.

"Don't be silly, you know you wanna watch," he snickered cheekily and walked over to the nice looking orange car.

"Now this is a real chick magnet," he began and smiled wickedly. He went off like for a while. He kept going on about V-8 engines and rpm's and she didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but it was fun to just talk about such trivial things. She and Isabeau did this often, just to get their minds off everything.

By the time he'd stopped talking about the orange car –a Selena or something- and the silver car – she had heard the name Audi before – and was about to start on the Austin Powers car, the voice of his AI spoke up out of nowhere making Mel jump.

"Mr Stark, Miss Potts has requested that you leave now for the fundraising ball, as you are already going to be half an hour late," JARVIS chimed.

"That's not even fashionably late yet," Tony chuckled.

"May I remind you the last time you were 'fashionably late', Mr Stark?" JARVIS droned sarcastically. Mel never thought she'd see the day where a computer would do anything 'sarcastically' to her. It weirded her out.

"Oh, I can handle, Pepper, don't you worry about that."

"What about Izzy?" Mel piped up. She was one of the few who'd ever seen her really mad.

"You can handle her, I'm sure," Tony said exasperatedly.

"Oh, hell no!" she snapped back, "If she gets pissed I'm pointing her in your direction, Stark." He looked over to her incredulously almost as if he could not believe she was afraid of anyone.

He conceded in the end after seeing a bit of genuine fear in Mel's eyes. But only a little.

It wasn't too long before the man was dressed in a black suit and tie, with a smug look on his face as he saw Mel take a good hard look at him.

"You know, my offer to take you on the tour of the more private rooms still stands," he said cheekily, winking at her. She looked over him with a contemplative look on her face as if she was actually considering it. She walked towards him, wrapped her hands around his tie and leant in to whisper in his ear, "Tempting, but I don't think you're quite enough man for me."

She stood back and smiled at his disgruntled expression. His pout was still on his face as she pushed him towards the door.

"I'd love to prove you wrong," he said, standing in the doorway.

"I bet you would," she replied just as smoothly.

"There's a lot more to me than meets the eye."

"And even more to me."

"I'd like to see that."

"You'll have to try harder than that."

"Don't wait up for me."

"Never do."

He smiled at the superficial and trivial banter. It was fun flirting with her. Even though she rejected and insulted his ability.

He chuckled when she pushed him out the door a little more forcefully than she needed and waved when he got in the car.

"Oh, so very tempting," she whispered to herself as his car sped off into the night.

The younger of the two could only watch as Pepper Potts ran around her office in a mad dash to find out why Tony was late for the ball.

The ball. She tried not to chuckle at that.

Pepper was completely frantic, whilst Isabeau had an odd feeling of calm about her. She wasn't too worried, as Mel had texted to say that Tony _planned_ on being 'fashionably' late. So, since there was nothing she could do but prod and poke her friend via texting to make Tony hurry up.

_He's out the door, as promised and I haven't slept with him – M_ . Isabeau couldn't help but giggle at her lewd friend, but she knew she had to take Pepper out of her misery before she started tearing her hair out.

"Miss Potts, Mel just told me that he's leaving now. He'll be there in about 15 minutes. Now we're just waiting on you," she stood up and said quickly, and watched Pepper quickly compose herself before going back out to the reception area to make light about Tony's tardiness.

The ball-again, she tried not to giggle-was being held in a large museum that, for the purposes of the event, had been transformed into a Victorian England dance hall and dining area. From her view point she could see the large, diamond chandelier hanging from the ceiling-fake candle lights and all- as well as the large beautifully decorated ivory coloured stairs that lead up to the second storey of the museum.

She was madly curious about what lay beyond the upper level. But her job was to see all and hear all-but to be seen and heard by no one. Like a ninja. Yes, that's what she'd tell Mel tonight. She was a ninja to the stars.

Oh yeah, that would go down well.

"Who are we spying on?" a young man whisper into her ear. If it wasn't for the sudden loud classical music that had started up, she was sure that everyone would have heard her sudden loud screech of fear.

She spun around in fury and her hand snapped forward to grab the collar of the rude man who felt the need to sneak up on her like that. She was a little shocked to see a young looking man with short brown hair that fell about his face in thick locks, and clear blue eyes that had a look of mischief in them. He was tall and had a certain level of muscle tone that was now visible because of the button she had ripped off in her haste.

"Well, hello to you too," the man said in a cheeky British accent, "My name is Benedict Smith. Sorry if I gave you a fright?"

She let go of him, eventually, and eyed him suspiciously.

"Isabeau Asmundor," she said stiffly and felt her face heat up as she realised he must have felt the full force of her 'fear'.

"It is an absolute pleasure," he said kissing her hand, "to meet you."

For the first time that night she giggled. And immediately felt ashamed for it. She could hear Mel's hysterical laughter already.

"And a pleasure to meet you too, Ben," she said, trying to belittle his sense of dignity to make herself feel better. Mel taught her that one.

"Benedict," he corrected, "and you didn't answer my question. Who are we spying on?"

"_We_ aren't spying on anyone. _I_, however, am staying here until my boss gets here."

"Oh, who's your boss?"

She was about to reply with some witty retort about spies and secrets when Tony walked in trying to gain as much attention as possible. She glared at the extrovert, and left the bewildered but intrigued British boy to usher the womanizer towards Pepper.

Benedict Smith watched the young and beautiful girl and she subtly ran after Anthony Stark, and when he job was finished, quickly ran out the door without so much as a 'good-bye' or a 'can I have your number?'

He knew then that he just had to see her again. Even if it was to make her scream like a banshee for his own entertainment.

**So...I hope you liked that. Let me know via review of PM, I don't mind. I like reader feedback. And don't worry, a few more chapters like this and our favourite costumed heroes will start to feature.**

**TOODLES**


	5. Chapter 3

The next month before Tony's trip to Las Vegas was, for the most part, uneventful. Tony and Mel became closer as he taught her more about his cars, and even discussed buying an over-priced car for her-which she vehemently refused.

Pepper began to confide in Isabeau and they started having coffee in the morning before going to work. Tony went out almost every night-which was fine with Mel and Isabeau since they worked 9-5 days, and Pepper had long since gotten used to it.

Soon, Mel was officially introduced to his bodyguard/driver, who was a little funny, but very sweet. For all Tony's gripes about 'not having a family' and being 'forever alone', he did seem to have a lot of people who cared a great deal for him. Mel knew that she should count Obadiah in that category but she just couldn't. The man gave her the creeps. She could always smell a rat.

Isabeau on the other hand was nearly in love with the old fat bastard. She kept going on about how she would 'bump into him' and he was so charming and polite and held the door open for her and paid for her coffee. If Mel didn't know any better she'd think he was slipping weed into her coffee. But Mel did know better, she'd sniff the contents of the coffee cup when Isabeau arrived when no one was looking. She had a very keen sense of smell.

Not only that, but she was quite agile and strong, as Tony was soon noticing, when Dummy would accidently throw something around she'd catch it with ease and put it back. She moved around his furniture upstairs without ever asking for help, though whenever he opened his sound proof door, he could hear his couches and his table moving across the floor-and he was pretty sure that he heard her moving the grand piano once.

That added with her over-confidence and fit body, how could he not constantly offer to make her a woman? And he with his over-intelligence, his quick wit and her inability to sleep with men that won't ditch her in the morning, how could she not be tempted?

It was 3 hours before his flight was to leave for Vegas when it happened. Tony was watching Mel dust off the immaculately clean piano-mostly because Pepper had banned them both from the workshop until Tony left and they were both bored. Tony could see it in her face-she was about ready to put an electric drill through her head from boredom. She actually might have, but all his tools were downstairs and they were not allowed downstairs.

He sauntered over to where she was now sitting on the piano, with the same bored look in her face that she'd had for the last 5 hours.

"You know, if you're so bored, I do know one way that we could kill some time," he said winking at her. She looked down at him and smiled. Isabeau would kill _her_ if she did something so stupid and kinky as sleeping with her boss.

Of course there was that little voice in her head shouting '_WHAT IZZY DOESN'T KNOW WON'T HURT HER_'

What a persuasive creature her inner demon was.

"If I've told you once, then I've told you a hundred times Tony-I don't think you're man enough to take me on," she said teasingly. She was allowed to flirt and make light of his manhood. They'd been doing that since she got there.

"If I've told you once, then I've told you a hundred times, Mel-I think you underestimate me," he retorted quickly. He had that slick smile of his on his face that always did weird things to her body.

"I think I over-estimate you." She slid off the piano and smiled up at his face. Rejecting his proposals was a lot more fun than dusting the varnish off of a grand piano.

"I think you over-estimate yourself," he said and she realised her mistake of getting off higher ground. From up there it was easy to ignore his advances, when they saw each other eye to eye, he was able to step in front of her and trap her between two thick arms.

And thus, from this point, he could smother her in a searing, liquid sex kiss that sent tingles down her spine.

He could, and he did. It was not just her imagination. His hands were wrapped tightly around her waist and her hands instinctively went into his soft brown locks.

It all went wrong when she thought that he must use a lot of shampoo and she started giggling. He broke the kiss and looked at her and started giggling too.

Pepper walked in and walked right back out when she saw the two giggling with their arms wrapped around each other. She had grown used to his ways even if she never accepted it, but she felt a well of disappointment that Miss Lachly who had seemed so strong willed and fiercely independent had been unable to resist Tony's charms.

"That was totally weird, wasn't it?" Tony asked between chuckles. She just nodded, but then stopped. She leant in and kissed him again, this time slower and sweeter. But she giggled again when his beard started scratching her face.

"This is totally not how I saw this happening," he said, and laughed softly.

"I think I know you a little too well, Stark."

He was still inappropriately close to her, but since they had established that there was no possibility of them copulating, she really didn't see the harm in letting him stay there. He was still good looking, after all.

That's when Hogan walked in and coughed loudly to gain the attention of the two of them.

"Sir, I've left the car running, I was just wondering what was taking you so long," he said completely indifferent to the situation. He had obviously become used to Tony as well.

Tony nodded and smiled at Mel before turning about and leaving as if nothing weird had happened between them at all and waved as he walked out the door.

"How long will it take us to get to the airport, Happy?" Tony asked easily. Normally he and Hogan would race, but he was feeling far to mellow from his brief encounter with Mel. Hm, Mellow Mel. He'd used that one the next time they saw each other.

"Just about an hour, sir," Hogan said simply, then frowned at the road in front of him, "I like Mel, sir."

Tony just looked at him through the rear view mirror.

"Yes?"

"And, if I may, sir, I don't think you sleeping with her and dumping her is really going to make her want to keep working with us."

Tony was shocked for a moment. Happy never disagreed with anyone-unless it was about the car.

"Um, okay. I won't sleep with her?"

"Good. I just wanted to get that out the way."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They spent the rest of the trip in complete silence-Tony more stunned than he'd ever been in his life.

The trip to Vegas, it seemed, was mostly successful. He didn't bring back any award though-no one exactly what he did with it, but apparently he just gave it to someone.

He brought girl from Vanity Fair back home-and since Hogan gave Pepper ample warning, Pepper made sure that neither Isabeau nor Mel were anywhere near the house. So instead they went to where they always went-the karaoke bar.

But things were a little awkward between them. That was, until Mel managed to nag Isabeau into telling her about the handsome young man she met at the fundraising ball.

"Benedict? Ooh, sounds aristocratic. Now I see what type of guy you're into," Mel sniggered and drank the rest of her beer.

"Oh, shut up, Mel, it wasn't like that. I didn't even know he was there until he snuck up on me like some sneaky little spy. It's creepy, is what it was," Izzy felt her blush betray her. She hated her body sometimes.

"No, of course. You did not flirt back-only I do that?" the other shot back, grinning. Izzy just shook her head. She didn't actually flirt with the man. Technically. Tony Stark had interrupted her before she could get the suave brunettes number.

Brunette and Tony in the same sentence-that just made her think of what Pepper had told her. Not that she was surprised that Mel had slept with Tony. It was bound to happen sometime. It's not like she was getting action anywhere else. But Mel didn't look like she'd just had sex-she looked like she'd had fun. And yes, there was a difference. With Mel at least.

But she wouldn't pry into Mel's sex life. She made her bed; she could sleep in it to-even if it is a $3000 four poster bed with animal print blankets and gold trims.

And even if she was morbidly curious about the details-though she would never admit it to anyone-the karaoke bar was for getting drunk and singing, not for work. Which basically meant, she was going to procrastinate about talking about it to Mel until further notice.

"_We've just had word that world-renown weapons-maker Anthony Stark was attacked by an unknown terrorist organisation whilst selling his newest invention, the Jericho Missile, to the armed forces in Afghanistan. So far there have been no leads as to his whereabouts, or whether or not the young man is even still alive. A search team has been sent out headed by Mr Stark's closest friend, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes."_

Pepper heard about it straight from Rhody before anyone else. Even before the journalist and news agents somehow found out. She went to Tony's house and her noises coming from downstairs. For a short, amazing moment, she had thought that Tony had somehow managed to make everyone believe he had gone missing as a practical joke and really just wanted to some downtime to fiddle with his cars.

But instead she found Mel softly humming to herself as she cleaned up around the workshop. She had her headphones in so loudly that she didn't even hear Pepper walking back up the stairs. Isabeau was next to walk through the front door of the Stark house and saw a lost looking Pepper Potts sitting on the couch in front of the TV watching looping news reals of Tony Stark's disappearance.

"_-was attacked by an unknown terrorist organisation-."_

Isabeau sat next to Pepper unsure of what to do. She'd never seen a person look so sad and still be so at attention as Pepper was. She found it a little scary.

"_-Missile, to the armed forces in Afghanistan-."_

Pepper just shook her head. "There are going to be-just teams, just _teams _- of news crews, and-and-and they will want to know, just-."

"_-the young man is even alive-."_

Pepper sobbed and crumpled down. Her head fell into her hands and her body shook with the force of her choked cries. She barely noticed when Isabeau wrapped her arms around the older woman, and held her as tightly as she could without hurting her.

"I don't-I don't know," Pepper sobbed out, "I don't know what to do. What am I supposed to do?"

They sat in relative silence; the only sound was the news and Pepper grief. Isabeau tried to be strong, but she could not stop her own brave face falling as she held in her breath, and tears ran down her face.

She didn't know what to do either.

At first, Mel was angry. JARVIS, after observing Pepper and Isabeau holding each other for the last 4 hours, reasoned that Mel, Tony's only other personal employee, should know about the tragedy as well. She he stated to her, the only way he knew how, by saying out right that Tony had been attacked in Afghanistan and that he was missing and it had happened some 6 hours ago.

She didn't believe him, but when he played the news report of the event, she did the most peculiar thing. She started screaming at the AI, as if the incident was somehow caused by him. Then she took a beam left over from one of Tony's projects and started hitting things and breaking things. All the while she screamed out, her voice becoming more feral and guttural as she did so. When her hands started bleeding, she dropped the beam and dropped to her knees, and began hitting the concrete floor with her fists.

JARVIS noted that her face was wet-either from sweat or tears or both-and that her eyes were red. She hit the floor over and over until a small crack appeared. She stopped, completely exhausted, and leant her forehead on the tiny crack. He could hear her sobs now, and he reasoned that she, like Miss Potts and Miss Asmundor, were very close to his creator, Tony Stark, and was equally upset as they were, only in a different way.

He found their grief logically, but their outlets of said grief illogical. It was a conundrum of sorts, one which not even he had the intelligence to puzzle out. To cry would be logical, but to beat one's hands against the ground until bruises formed, or to hug one's own body until one could barely breathe, was illogical and possibly lethal.

He knew the odds of Tony's survival, and of his rescue, but he reasoned that at a time such as this, none of the current guests would appreciate his voicing of the slim odds.


	6. AN

**So my friend, SARAH, is being annoying and won't give me what I want-don't ask-so until she gives me what I want I am holding all these chapters hostage. That is all**

**TOODLES**


	7. Chapter 4

It was when Pepper started noticing the distinct smell of bleach in the air and spots of paint missing from the wall that she decided to let Isabeau and Mel go on forced paid leave, just for a week. Pepper herself could barely stand to be inside the house. She would catch glimpses of Tony around every corner and hear his voice behind every door. She kept trying to plan for the future but she was just stuck-lost; she couldn't imagine a world without Tony. She'd worked for him for so long, it was hard to make plans that didn't revolve around him.

She laughed bitterly at the thought. Tony was the centre of her universe. He was like the sun, and now with him gone, everything was spinning out of orbit.

Obadiah was not as distraught as Pepper thought he should be. She assumed he was putting up a strong front, trying to keep the company in one piece. It was heartless. She never said anything, just nodded and smiled through her tears whenever he asked her if she was okay. She tried not to roll her eyes when he was being overly comforting to Isabeau, as if it was something Tony would do. Isabeau seemed indifferent to his affections.

He was definitely no Anthony Stark. No one was.

Pepper also noticed a lack of emotion from Mel. She would get angry at that as well. Mel was the one to falter and slept with him, and just because he slept with another woman hours after they'd shared their own moment she refused to grieve his loss.

Her choked sob echoed in Tony's laboratory. She didn't even know why she was down there. If anything reminded him of Tony, it was this place. She walked down here with the vain hope that she might still be able to feel his presence in the large room; she nearly burst into tears when all she could see was shining metal and all she could smell was bleach. His bed sheets had been washed, his cars had been cleaned and every surface in the house had been dusted. There was nothing left of the great Tony Stark. Just echoes and shadows.

She placed her small hand on the cool metal of the table and felt the chill surge up her arm and circle her heart. Her vibrating phone distracted her thoughts for a moment as she tried to get a hold on her emotions. She breathed deeply and answered the phone.

"Pepper?" Col James Rhodes barked out.

"Speaking," she replied, hoping he couldn't hear the strain in her voice.

"He's alive, Pepper."

"What?"

"We found Tony."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX

Izzy worried her lip as she watched Mel stare into the depths of a White Russian. White like bleach. She had also noted how stringent Mel had become about cleaning Tony's house. It was as if the brunette woman was trying to clean away every memory of Stark; it was like for Mel, if she breathed in the fumes of disinfectant and concentrated bleach for long enough she'd forget everything. But it didn't always work out like that.

Normally Mel would have downed that drink in seconds with a bitter smile on her face and order another double. But now, she just seemed fixated with the melting ice-it reminded Isabeau of when Mel returned from wherever it was she went the first time. For a second, Izzy thought that the other woman would try to make a break for the door and never be seen again. Izzy wasn't sure if she would be able to cope if that happened again. Mel was all she had left.

She turned to look at the stage as someone sung a slightly out of tune version of 'Rolling in the Deep'. Normally they'd be laughing at the talentless hacks, but neither one of the close companions were in a laughing mood. Izzy knew she had to say something, so she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"I'm not gonna pretend to understand what you're going through-," she said forcefully.

"Same as you, Iz," she sighed out.

"Yeah, but you two were close, you know-."

"Not as close as Pepper was."

"I'm pretty sure you became closer, you know, because you two," Iz said making vague hand gestures with her hands as she spoke.

"We what?" Mel asked, finally looked at her friend.

"Well, you two, the day that he left for Vegas – you know, you guys," she cleared her throat awkwardly, "got it one. And-."

"We what?" Mel repeated, confused.

"Pepper told me, she walked in on you guys-."

"What the fuck, Iz!" she snapped out defensively. Isabeua sat up at the suddenness of Mel's aggression. In the back of her mind thought, she was thinking Melody's anger was better than Melody's melancholy.

"What? What did I say?" she threw her hands up in fear.

"I didn't sleep with him!" Mel huffed out, "God – don't you think I would have told you if I did?"

"Well, I don't know, you never tell me anything!"

"Oh, that's horseshit!"

"What? I always have to force you to tell me anything that's bugging you!"

"Well, sure, those things, but I always tell you about all the cranks I see!" Mel said playfully shoving Isabeau's shoulder, "Don't you remember Jeremy's? We got it on in your mom's kitchen and-."

"Oh my god! No! Stop! I was trying to repress that memory for the last five years!" Iz yelped out and slapped her hands over her eyes as if she could see the scene unfold behind her eyelids. Mel burst out laughing at the sight and soon both girls were in hysterics.

Iz was aware that everyone in the bar was staring at them strangely, but it felt nice to be able to laugh again for the first time since they found out. It was like the wall that Mel had put around herself had finally been taking down, and they could both breathe again. Yes, that's what it felt like. A first breath.

"And trust me, Iz dear, if I'd slept with Tony Stark, I'm sure I'd have a few tales to tell," Mel said with her usual cheeky bravado and winked at Isabeau. They both erupted with loud laughter again as Mel went on to further elaborate on the entire was-going-to-but-didn't-actually-sleep-together debacle.

After three more shots of straight vodka, and a small bowl of peanuts, Iz answered her phone with tears in her eyes and peanut just about stuck in her throat.

"Iz speaking," she coughed out violently to dislodge the peanut and giggled with alcohol still apparent in her voice. Mel still had a grin on her face as she heard bits of Pepper and Iz's short conversation. She heard a hushed, "They found him – I'm sending a driver to pick you up," on Pepper's side before she caught the phone that Iz dropped in shock.

Iz had this disbelieving, dumbfounded look on her face, as if the news was taking its time to sink it. But slowly she saw a small smile appearing on Iz's face, and that's when their attention was grabbed by the bartender yelling out, "Shit!" at a fire that started at the telephone wires. Mel and Iz jumped back in surprise as a bottle of alcohol fell from a shelf and the flames spread across the counter. Mel reacted first and grabbed Iz's sleeve before bolting for the door. It was dark and raining outside.

They didn't have to wait long for the car to arrive and to be ushered into the car by the pushy driver.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Isabeau and Mel arrived at the press conference to see Tony sitting on the floor munching away at a cheese burger. Iz frowned, Mel giggled. Pepper waved them over and they joined her on the floor as Tony began to speak.

Mel would have paid attention to what he said, but she noticed a little official looking man with a receding hair line staring at her. When he realised she had caught him, he looked back at Tony and a concerned look fell on his face.

"I, uh, I had my eyes opened," she heard Tony said and finally paid attention when everyone stood up. She looked back at the man and grew cautious of the knowing grin on his face and the wink he sent her way. She'd seen that man before, a long time ago. She couldn't remember his name, but she recognized his eyes, he knew something. He knew everything. Who was he?

She jumped and covered her ears with her hands as the room erupted with noise. The reporters' voices were like an explosion on her sensitive ear drums. She saw the room swirl in front of her for a moment as all the people in the room seemed to rush forward to Tony to shout questions at him that he wasn't really paying attention to.

She felt her eyes water at all the flashing lights and just saw Obadiah drag Tony away to speak with him privately. She saw Iz's facial expression mirror Pepper's horrified look and she also saw one of the cameras' light bulb burst into flames and set fire to the respective owner's sleeve. What she didn't see was someone shooting a dart into her neck that no one else seemed to notice.

She ripped it out quickly, but could already feel the room spinning even more. She didn't see the dead man that shot at her, all she felt was someone dragging her by the arm and shoving her in a car, followed by Tony about 5 minutes later.

"Hey, gorgeous," he smiled grinning slightly and kissed her on the cheek. When he had opened the door she could hear a faint buzzing coming from outside and it scratched against her hazy brain.

"Hey, you don't look so good, Melody?" Tony said smiling, but concerned. She didn't say anything. The room was still spinning and his voice was more annoying than soothing. She closed her eyes and all she saw were flashing light behind her eyelids.

She couldn't speak, and everyone of her other senses were hazy and dizzy and for a moment she thought she was going to up-chuck all over Tony's concerned face. She giggled at that image. She growled when he snapped his fingers in front of her face and swatted him away.

"Happy, take us back home, quick as you can, I think Mel's had a bit too much to drink," Mel could hear his voice but it seemed far off, "I didn't realise you'd miss me so much, Melody."

"I'm gonna kick your ass when I'm sober, Stark," she managed to slur out just as everything began to fade. She reached her hand out to his chest as if to punch him, but stopped when she saw a faint glow coming out of his chest. She tapped it with her index finger for a moment but didn't feel Tony grabbing her hand as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"Is she okay, Tony?" Happy asked as the car sped off onto the highway. Tony looked over the sleeping girl and noted a small red dot on the back of her neck.

"Yeah, she'll be fine, I think. Just hurry."


	8. Chapter 5

Mel blacked out in the car, and she drifted in and out of consciousness for the next 36 hours. Tony had decided to create a make-shift medical bed in his lab so that Mel's absence wouldn't worry Pepper or Isabeau. And also, if those too weren't worried about Mel's health, they could spend all their time on not killing him for making the executive decision to stop making weapons.

He still thought it was the best decision he'd ever made, and no one could convince him otherwise. He had taken a blood sample of Mel and JARVIS was analysing it as he made himself a new power source. Whilst the one he was using did have a certain sentimental value, he needed a new one that would work with greater efficient and, more importantly, was made with the proper material and would not cause infection or cardiac arrest. Considering he'd just survived kidnap he felt like he'd like to stay alive a little longer just to gloat.

He heard Mel groan on the table he'd turned into an uncomfortable bed. He stood up and cracked his back as he walked over to her, a holographic interface following the sound of his clicking fingers. He looked over his patient – trying not to giggle at the kinkiness of it all – and tapped the interface so that he could see her progress.

There were small blue metal plates stuck to her forehead and forearms that had tracked her vitals over the last 36 hours. The ones on her arm flashed every few seconds denoting her heartbeat and then one on her forehead was lit up as it was constantly sending information to JARVIS.

"Tony?" Mel asked groggily as she tried to open her eyes. The lights were incredibly bright and she began to raise her arm to shield her face as her eyes adjusted to the sudden contrast. She felt Tony's hands grip her wrists and push them back and she thrashed her head and groaned as the heat from the lights above seemed to pierce her closed eyes.

"No! Don't do that, Mel! JARVIS please dim the lights, now," Tony rushed out and held her arms down until she stopped moving and finally started up at his smiling face.

"Why are you listening to Aretha Franklin?" she asked as she became more aware of her surroundings. Aretha Franklin's 'Chain of Fools' was playing from one of the speakers in the background and Tony laughed even more at her out of place question.

Instead of answering her he slowly peeled off each of the plates and placed them on a metal table next to her bed that she hadn't noticed before. He helped her until she sat up straight and gave her a bottle of water that had been on the table.

Mel skulled the water and coughed as she choked on some of it in her rush the feel the cool refreshing drink against her lips. Some of it dripped down the corner of her mouth and Tony laughed at her once more as he went back to tapping on the hologram. She watched Tony's movements without really thinking about what he was doing. He seemed to be deep in thought as he read a bunch of numbers and graphs that were flashing across the screen. All the different colours made her dizzy.

She felt the last effects of the drug finally wear off and she feel all of her senses return to their full efficiency, and she soon became aware of a dull throbbing coming from the inside of her elbow. She looked down and saw a blood soaked cotton ball stuck to her arm with a strip of skin-coloured bandage. She winced as she ripped it off and stared at the little red dot that sat atop vein.

"What did you inject into me?" she asked as she looked at her surroundings. They were in Tony's lab, and she was sitting on a table. "Why am I sitting on a table?"

"I didn't have a bed and I didn't inject you with anything," he replied without looking at her. She couldn't see what he was doing with his back to her, but she could hear a slight buzzing, similar to the buzzing she'd heard before she blacked out.

"Why is there a hole in my arm?"

"It's barely a scratch."

"There's a hole in my arm."

"It's already healed over."

"There _was _a hole in my arm."

"Not a gaping one."

"You're not hearing my question."

"You never asked anything."

She sighed loudly and rubbed her forehead. She felt like she had a hangover-something she'd only had once in her entire life when it was half-priced-happy-hour at the karaoke bar two years ago. The owners learnt their lesson; there were no more half-priced-happy-hours.

"There _was _a hole in my arm. _Why_ was there a hole in my arm?" she said slowly and enunciated each syllable as much as she could to make sure Tony knew how much she was not up to dealing with his shit on this particular day.

"You blacked out in my car and as we were driving back to the mansion I assumed you had been injected with something because the point of the needle broke off in your skin," he said and turned to look at her with his signature shit-eating grin.

"Okay. So there was a hole in my neck. Why was there a hole in my arm?"

He laughed before saying, "Just like a broken record, Mel. Maybe I should give a CAT scan." He snickered for a moment but stopped when he caught the glare she was throwing at him.

"Whatever was in that needle was already in your blood stream so I had to take a blood sample to make sure it wasn't some disease he injected into you or something lethal. Just to be on the safe side. Turns out you were injected with a high strength serum that suppresses adrenaline and slows down the heartbeat, reaction time – but strengthens the body's ability to heal. Not that you needed any healing – except your ears. Your ears were bleeding, Mel," he stopped in the middle of his medical ramble and looked at her face sternly. He seemed concerned and she even saw a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

"Everyone's ears bleed," she shrugged and stared at her hand. The focused her eyesight on the creases over her knuckles and concentrated on them as she flexed her hand.

"Your eardrums burst, Mel. Both of them. You were deaf for 8 hours."

She said nothing and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her heart beat wildly inside her chest. She could almost feel the adrenaline being secreted from the gland and fire up her body. She felt all her muscles tense up as she got ready to run for the door.

Tony Stark glanced across her body, and saw the outlines of her stress across her hunched shoulders. Her knuckles were white and he watched a single drop of perspiration drip down her temple.

"My theory is that the person who drugged you wanted to neutralise you, but they were wary that you may injure yourself in your doped up state, so they added the healing factor," he said and saw all her muscles loosen, and he heard her sudden intake of breath.

"What?" she asked as she looked up at him. Her eyes had welled up with tears, but she refused to let them spill over as she glared at him. She seemed angry that he didn't question her further. He just shrugged and scratched absently at his chest as he stared at the ceiling.

"I just figure that whatever else was in the results JARVIS gave me was just a mistake, unless you want to tell me otherwise? Maybe not now – maybe you'll tell me over a coffee and some donuts. But, it's up to you," he said and smiled as he looked back at her.

Of course, she wasn't looking at him. She was staring at his chest. Or rather, she was staring at the source of the soft buzzing noise that had been irritating her since she woke up. There was a small blue glowing circle on his chest. No, it was _in _his chest; it was a _part _of his chest; the light _emanated _from his chest. It was electrical, and buzzed around in a tight coil in his chest. The circle wasn't moving, but she could hear the faint noises it made. No one else could hear it but her.

"You like this? I made it while I was on my vacation in Iraq. You know how it is," he said shrugging it off, "but it's old and I need your help to put the new one in."

**XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX**

Mel pretended to be asleep when Tony called Pepper in to help him replace his 'battery pack', as she now referred to it as. As the two began talking she wished she was asleep. She wanted to feel pity and roll her eyes at the same time – feel pity because Tony was so lonely and so stupid for a smart guy, and roll her eyes at the fact that Tony was too stupid to realise that he was crushing on his secretary.

In fact, she was sure that everyone in the entire universe knew that he was crushing on his secretary – everyone except him and his secretary. Why was she surrounded by such stupid smart people? She tried really hard to ignore what they were saying, but if she didn't focus on what they were saying that meant that she had to think about the information that Tony had on her.

She didn't believe for a second that he would just let it go – he was Tony Stark, he never let anything go that easily. And she didn't want to tell him. She couldn't tell him. No one was supposed to know, it wasn't safe for her. She knew that Tony would have already done his research, made his actual assumptions about her miracle recovery. His assumptions would be right, he was a genius after all.

She was glad that he hadn't started treating her differently. Mel knew that he would want to know more about her, and she knew that if she ever showed him her true potential he would never look at her the same. No one did. No one but Isabeau.

Where was Isabeau?

"You're all I've got," Mel heard Tony say earnestly to his ever loyal assistant.

"That's not true. You've got Mel now, as well," Pepper replied trying to gently pull her hand out of Tony's larger one. She didn't like the sincerity in his voice – she was still mad at him, there was still a mess to clean up and Obadiah was being no help what so ever.

"Yeah, but no one knows me like you do," he said and smiled as he slowly got off the chair.

"_Miss Potts – I need your assistance, there's a news channel representative on the line wanting an exclusive from Mr Stark._"

Speak of the devil. Isabeau's voice sounded shrill and stressed. Mel would say that she sounded like she needed a drink. Everyone needed a drink. Especially Mel. She needed one to calm her nerves. Ever since she woke up she'd been on high alert. Every sense in her body was working at full capacity, trying to protect her from any angle, even if there wasn't any danger in Tony's garage/lab thing. It was driving her insane. She just wanted to be able to breathe without gritting her teeth.

"Which channel, Isabeau?" Pepper chirped loudly. She frowned when Isabeau didn't reply for a moment.

"_Um_," she began over the intercom, "_all of them_."

Pepper glared at Tony as all her momentarily forgotten anger surface. He grinned impishly and was about to say "I'll do all the interviews" when she held her hand up, took a deep breath and composed herself. Then she walked all the way back up the stairs, her heels clicking loudly against the floor. Tony was sure that Pepper was mentally kicking him in the balls with every step she took.

"Mel, why did your hands have to be too big?" Tony asked, knowing she had been awake the entire time.

"Baby, I was born this way," she replied and turned over to face him. He walked over to her, and now she was able to see the little battery pack properly that was embedded in his chest. It glowed brighter and looked newer and he tapped on it as a means to get her attention.

"Eyes up here, Mel. I am not just a hunk of meat," he said and winked at her. She shook her head as she sat up and swung her legs over. She didn't say anything. She could feel the silence between them become awkward but she wasn't about to break it. As soon as he opened his big fat trap she knew he was going to ask her questions that she most certainly did not want to answer.

"So, I'm guessing that you don't want to tell me anything, do you?"

"No, Tony."

"Because, whatever it is, I would understand you know, I'm just that sort of understanding guy."

"No, Tony."

"I mean ask anyone, I can be trusted, you know. I have to be able to keep a secret, making weapons and everything."

"Let it go, Tony."

"Someone once even said I had a trusting face."

"Shut up, Tony."

"So, I mean, surely you trust me enough to tell me that you-."

"I said that's enough!" Mel slammed her feet off the ground as she glared at him. For such a brilliant man he could be really stupid sometimes. He kept quiet, but she could feel his stare even when she turned his back on him. She'd never been more tempted to escape a situation, and if anyone could think up creative ways to escape situations it was her. She was renowned for it back in her old school before she left.

"Okay," he said after a pause. She looked up to see him smiling at her apologetically, before going back to tap on a holographic interface and giving her the opportunity to escape the situation.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Tony," she said quickly and began making her way out of the lab.

"Take Miss Asmundor for a night out, won't you? Pepper's worried she might be a bit over worked," he said with a wave of his hand. Mel might have said something else to him, but he seemed suddenly incredibly engrossed in whatever it is he was doing.

She left silently and felt her heart beat frantically against her chest. Sure, she could try and take a deep breath but the air inside Tony's mansion seemed far too stifling. She walked waved half-heartedly to Iz as she walked out the door, took of her shoes and ran along the highway and back into her apartment.

It was a long run.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X XXXXX

Isabeau was aware that the only reason Mel hadn't downed her drink already was because she was giggling too much. As to why, it was quite simple: they were in their usual karaoke bar, and after an hour of moping and complaining about how crazy Tony Stark made her, Mel was able to convince Isabeau to go on stage and sing 'Can't keep my eyes off of you', and then Mel had the nerve to tell her that she'd found, with Tony's help, the number of the man she met at the function all those weeks ago and he was there and he had watched her sing.

And now he was walking over to them rather confidently and about to talk to Isabeau without bursting into school-girl giggles himself.

"Well, I must say you do know how to make an impression," he said gestured the bartended over, trying not to concentrate on the fact that the object of his affection was currently slumped over a bar stool with her head in her arms on the counter. He also had to concentrate on not looking at her equally gorgeous yet comical friend who was busy trying to take a shot of something without laughing or scrunching up her face.

Isabeau mumbled something in reply that he didn't hear since it was muffled by the table. A small snort escaped his lips and he tried to cover it unsuccessfully with a cough before looking up at her companion.

"We haven't officially met," he said and held out his hand, "Benedict Smith."

She reached over Isabeau's back to shake his hand while forcing out strangled 'Mel' before she burst into full blown hysterics. The shot she was holding in her other hand fell and whatever contents left in the shot glass spilt on the counter and managed to be soaked up by Isabeau's off-white cotton jumper.

"Oh, for love of – Mel!" she whined loudly as she jumped up wiping at her jumper madly. Benedict stumbled back as Isabeau's elbow swung about nearly colliding with his chiselled chin. Mel was absolutely no help at all as she was so overcome by her maniacal laughter that she was having trouble breathing.

Isabeau's attempt to quickly pull her stained jumper off went rather awry as her skin-tight blood red shirt became attached to her jumper, making her reveal a black lacy bra that was carefully cradling a pair of creamy white breasts. Mel shot a look at Ben whose eyes were fixed, guiltily, on said breasts, before he noted her wicked grin and pulled Isabeau's shirt down back over the exposed skin. Mel noticed how the skin around Iz's neck started to turn as red as her shirt.

Isabeau all but ran out the door after that and Ben _did _run after her, leaving Mel by herself ordering another shot. Her giggles had died down and she stared into the offered shot for a moment before drinking it down. She slowly made her way out and looked about her, noting that Iz was nowhere to be found. She would have to go home alone, again.

Her only consoling thought was that in the morning she would get a call from a very angry Isabeau for ditching her at the bar – which she laughed at as she hailed cab – or she would get no call at all because Iz was too busy getting snugly with a certain handsome British...man. He never did mention his day job.

Perhaps she would get Tony to find that out for her.

**XXXXXXXxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx xxxxXXXXXXXx**

**So...that took a while...HOWEVER, in my defence it has been a little busy with it being my last year of high school and all and final exams are just around the corner and all that jazz. But I shall be attempting to update slightly more often – especially once I finish school. Wish me luck, lovelies.**

**TOODLES**


	9. Chapter 6

Isabeau shivered the cold morning air ran across her arm. She groaned into her pillow as she tried to pull the covers over her exposed flesh. This would have been easy had there not been a warm, heavy object draped across her midsection that gripped the blankets to her.

She opened her eyes very slowly, and blinked as she adjusted to the light. She knew, without needing to check, that her hair was in complete disarray and any makeup she had been wearing was now smudged across her face.

The dark navy blue curtains drawn over the windows, but there was a crack where a sliver of sunlight entered to play havoc with her sleep-ridden eyes. She turned her head around, taking in the soft fabric of the bed cover and the brown carpeted floor that surrounded the bed.

She was in a bed – definitely not her bed – with a man – who belonged to warm, heavy arm – and according to the clock on his bedside table, it was 10:34 AM. Her work started an hour and a half ago.

All this information seemed to bombard her with sudden, and aggressive, velocity causing her let out a loud long cry of, "Shit!" and wake up her bed partner. She also quickly noticed from the pointed poking around her rear end that her bed partner's bed partner had been up for a while.

"What's wrong, Iz?" Ben mumbled softly, and she squeaked suddenly when he pulled her closer to his body and began to lazily kiss her shoulder and neck.

She was almost undone until his hand began to sneak underneath the covers and snake across her bare upper body with surprising efficiency. She gasped involuntarily, which was unfortunate as that seemed to spur him on and he began to absently grind against her behind.

Had she been a weaker woman she would have happily stayed in the bed with the gorgeous, English Benedict Smith, but the screeching of her phone meant that Pepper Potts was calling.

She pushed back against the man roughly and toppled out of bed with the grace of blind, one legged chicken, and let go of any dignity she had left by crawling rapidly towards her phone, completely naked.

"Miss Potts! I'm so sorry, I know I'm late, I went drinking with Mel – and you know Mel – and then I just woke up – well not just, but – yes I know it's no excuse – I can been there in 45 minutes – what? When did – a car will be fine – where? Oh, uh – ," She spoke so quickly that Ben, who was staring at her rather happily, barely understood a word.

She glared at him before asking for his address and quickly repeating it to her boss on the phone. The next few moments were a mad flurry of clothing searches and more expletives as Isabeau ran about trying to get ready for work.

Benedict sat up in his large bed and just stared and stared, slightly guilty for making her late, but at the same time incredibly pleased with himself. When she finally noticed him sitting there on the bed, not caring to cover himself up with the blankets she had thrown hastily aside, she stood for moment looking very much like a deer caught in headlights.

"So, I'm going to go to work, and I had a lovely time, and..," she stammered nervously, obviously not the kind of girl who often slept with men she barely knew. She stuttered more frequently when he got out of bed and began walking toward her like he was some character out of a poorly written porno.

He gripped her face in his face and kissed her deeply and passionately, his tongue exploring her mouth languidly. She hummed in appreciation when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against his body. She could feel _every _ hard, tensed muscled of his body and she ran her hands up his lean arms until one hand found its way into his thick curly hair.

He groaned into her mouth as she massaged his scalp, and began to grind his straining erection into without really meaning.

Sometimes Isabeau wished she was a weaker woman. She really, really, _really,_ wished she was weaker. She let go of his hair pushed against his chest gasping in her next breath. She knew that she was blushing horridly and she closed her eyes as she tried to slow down her rapid breathing.

"Must you try so hard to fight against my charms, Isabeau?" Benedict joked in a voice that sounded like molten chocolate personified. Her name came off his lips like a purr and she was rewarded with memories of him chanting out her name like a prayer, worshipping her body with his lips as though she was some sort of goddess.

Her phone rang again, ending the incredibly tense flashback she was having.

"I'll see you again, soon, Isabeau," he said detaching himself from her completely. It wasn't some idle bit of chit chat, to be said and never realised. It was a hidden promise – in fact she'd almost call it a threat if she wasn't watching his naked behind as he walked to his bathroom.

Her phone rang again bringing her out of her hormone fuelled stupor and she nearly killed herself tripping down the stairs where Hogan was waiting with the car.

**XXXXxxxxxX**

Mel entered the Stark Mansion as she always did. Made her way down to the work shop like it was any other day, and began to clean up as if it wasn't going to be incredibly awkward the second Tony arrived.

She says 'second' but it was at least noon by the time Tony finally entered his workshop and began talking to JARVIS. He was completely unaware of her presence and she decided that she didn't mind and went back to cleaning out smushed McDonalds chips from the carpet.

"Working on a secret project, are we, sir?" JARVIS asked politely.

"I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands," Tony replied seriously, "Maybe in mine it can actually do some good."

"Maybe what can do some good?" Mel asked suddenly, looking curiously at the hologram Tony was spinning around on the table.

"Shit, woman!" he started, gripping at his heart, "Where the hell have you been hiding?"

"I haven't been hiding!" she snapped defensively, "I've been cleaning fries from your car!"

"How much did you hear?"

"Well I wasn't paying attention until JARVIS mentioned the secret project. You gonna let me in, or what?"

"You gonna tell if I don't?"

"Wanna find out?"

Tony couldn't help but chuckle at her idle threat. He was glad that it only took _one _night of what he assumed were drunken shenanigans to get her back to her feisty self. He just nodded at her and waved her over as he began to explain how he escaped and what he planned on creating.

**XXXXxxxxXX**

Mel walked through the door of her apartment and was greeted by the sounds of rather enthusiastic moans coming from the general direction of Isabeau's bedroom.

Over the last month Mel had become far more involved with Tony and his secret project. Isabeau was obviously becoming more involved with Benedict, and seemed to be enjoying herself for the most part. The man would leave the most perverse voice mails on the home phone. Messages that Mel would normally have playing whenever Isabeau was home, making her blush like the Virgin Mary.

Iz was also becoming more involved with Obadiah Stane – or he was trying to become more involved with her. Apparently he wanted to take her off Pepper Potts hands and have her work for him instead, and with a higher pay.

That man gave Mel all kinds of creeps, but Iz would just brush her off, so enamoured with his charm and business know-how she was. Ben would just shrug and promise to protect Iz's virtue anytime Obadiah's grabby hands came into the conversation.

Mel also didn't trust Ben as far as she could throw him. Apparently he was just a struggling writer who had come to America on an internship that had long since finished. Now he was just scrounging enough money for the trip back. His foresight was atrocious. But he kept asking about what Tony was up to, claiming to be interested from a journalist stand-point.

She would normally tell him to shove it, and that's about when he and Iz would go out on their date.

"Oh, Ben!," she heard Iz cry from the bedroom. Mel simply rolled her eyes as she dropped her large satchel and began trying to find food in the fridge. All they had left was two apples, a bottle of chocolate sauce, one mushroom and really, really old leftovers.

"Gross, man," Mel muttered to herself.

"God, Iz, you're so tight!" Ben groaned loudly.

Mel could even hear the sound of the headboard hitting the wall. It was rhythmic in the most haunting way. Haunting, like now she couldn't get the image of Iz and Ben going at it like rapid monkeys.

It was not a pretty picture.

"Yes! Oh god, Ben! I'm so close!" Iz cried. Mel never knew she was a screamer. She looked back into the fridge and grabbed the bottle of chocolate sauce, a positively cruel idea springing into her mind. She walked casually up to bedroom, opened the door with her eyes firmly shut and said, "Hey I found some chocolate sauce if you guys are out of lube?"

The shriek that escaped Iz's mouth was definitely not one of pleasure. Mel heard Ben's quiet groan of disappointment as he was shoved off of Iz's body and the naked woman pulled the blanket up to cover her modesty.

"Mel!" she shrieked, completely red in face, both from obvious embarrassment and anger as she had been close to a rather explosive orgasm.

"I'll take that as no, then?" Mel said, and barely had time for eyes to adjust when a phone was being thrown at her face. She ducked in time, and was cackling maniacally as she ran away from the bedroom, grabbed her bag and ran out the door.

She figured she'd give Mel a few hours, and check in on Tony instead. He had texted her earlier that night, asking for a favour, and telling her to meet him at his mansion. Even though Mel had completely sworn off sleeping with Tony Stark, it didn't mean she had to stop the delightful little dreams that popped into her head when Tony asked her for a 'favour'.

She arrived at his house in the same, dirty clothes she had worn when she'd left earlier that day – just simple green tank top with grease stains on it and some jeans – and walked down to the workshop to see him brooding.

"You called Mr Stark?" she said in the most sultry voice she could manage. She was hoping to lighten the mood slightly, but he just stared sternly ahead as he added the finishing touches to the arm of his suit.

"Yeah, sorry, you weren't busy, were you?" he asked, still brooding.

"It was either this or listen to my roommate have sex."

"Did you have to flip a coin?"

"Always."

He didn't say anything for a while as he thought over what he was about to ask her. She began to actually feel nervous – something she normally never feels. He looked like a he had a death wish really, and she wondered how bad his night was for him to be in a mood like this.

"Tony, what's wrong?" she asked, letting concern leak into her voice. She sat next to him on the couch and he just looked at her with a bitter grin.

"Some information has just come to light, for me, and it's a little disconcerting. Well, not disconcerting, it's more like a betrayal. I mean, these things are happening right under my nose, and it makes _me _responsible for it," he rambled on.

"Tony, you're not making any sense. What happened?"

He hesitated again and stared up at the TV screen. The news was on, and some woman was talking about a town in Gomerrah, and the ten rings or something of the sort. Mel was more concerned about the way Tony stood up, raised his hand to the opposite end of the room, and smiled down at her before shooting energy out through the hand.

She shrieked and jumped back in surprise, and he just smiled, seeming please with himself. She had to cover her ears with her hands as he blasted the three glass planes across from the couch she was sitting on.

"Obi has been selling my weapons on both sides of the table, Mel, and it has put innocent lives at risk. The things I've created."

"What are planning, Tony?"

"It's my responsibility, and I'm gonna make it right."

Mel was unable to deter him from his path of destruction, partly because he was stubborn, and partly because she was planning her own path of destruction, so to speak. She had become far too involved with Tony Stark. She cared for him now, like a brother, like family. For so long, Isabeau and her mother had been Mel's own family. And Mel takes care of her family.

**XXXXxxXXx**

Isabeau quickly caught that Mel was being far too nice about Obadiah Stane, and also far too inquisitive about him. Mel was a great liar, but Iz could always tell when she was being fed bullshit. And she always called friend out on it.

"He's not the man you think he is, Iz," Mel finally said, "He's not a good guy."

"I know you think he's creepy, Mel, but he's really not that bad!" she said exasperated. Mel was so untrusting – and usually Iz always trusted Mel about these kinds of things, but being sceptical about both Obadiah _and_ Ben? She could understand one or the other, but not both at once.

"You don't get it, Iz! All that sex has gone straight to your head! I just need to know where he's gonna be tonight, that's all."

"I am _not_ enabling you to _stalk_ him, Melody!"

"You let me stalk Ben!"

"That's because I'm sleeping with Ben!"

"You stalked me?" Ben spoke up from behind them.

They were at their usual karaoke bar, a bar that Ben now suddenly frequented as well. It annoyed Mel to no end. The bar was her and Iz's place to hang out and chat! Ben was inexplicably monopolising all their places. If Mel didn't know any better she'd think _he _was working for Obadiah, and making sure that Iz or Mel wouldn't be in the way.

"Yeah I did, Mr Sneaky-Pants. I stalk all her boyfriends. I saw you at that gay bar," Mel said sarcastically. She did actually see him at a gay bar though.

"I was only there to be wingman for a mate of mine," he said and raised his hands up in defence.

"Yeah, whatever," Mel replied, "I gotta go, Iz. I'll see you in the morning."

"In the morning?" Iz asked, grabbing Mel's arm before she could leave, "Where are you going tonight?"

"Nowhere, dear, I just don't want to be around well you and Bennie make babies, 'kay?"

Iz just blushed deeply and let go of her friend. Ben only chuckled and held his girlfriend closely as he watched Mel's hasty movements with suspicion.

"So tell me more about this 'stalking', darling?"

**XXXxxXXXXxXX**

Mel realised that she looked ridiculous, dressed all in black and sans shoes. She had followed Obadiah from his office all the way to his plane, and in his plane. She was hiding in the cramped cargo hold that she had easily and silently jumped into when the ground crews' backs were turned. Now she was completely regretting this decision because she couldn't hear anything, and she was also cursing her curiosity as now she could be found out at any minute and she was unsure what Obadiah would do to her.

She knew that landed, and she knew that he had long since left the plane, but she was only able to make to the door of the cargo hold when she was gripped with an indescribable pain. She would have cried out, but she dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks and felt blood trickle from her ears.

She eventually passed out from the pain in her ears, and when she woke up again, she was staring up into the face a very angry looking Obadiah Stane.


	10. Chapter 7

The young blonde woman nearly regretted coming down to find her friend in Tony's workshop when she caught the endings of a private conversation.

"You're all I have too, you know," Pepper said softly, and Isabeau nearly stopped what she was doing to go back upstairs, but the red head had already seen her.

"Miss Asmundor. Did you need Tony for something?" Pepper asked, the mask of professionalism stuck firmly in place once again.

"Um," she began, and cleared her throat, "yes. I was wondering if Mel had come into work yet?"

Tony looked up at Isabeau's concerned face, her nervousness clearly showing through her fidgeting fingers and her absently biting her bottom lip.

"No," he said after a moment, "She hasn't come in, yet. I'd figured she'd gotten wasted and was at home hung-over."

She just shook her head and sighed softly. Her brow creased as she realised that Mel must have just run off somewhere. She'd never been one to stick to a routine for long; perhaps she just felt caged and needed to get out. Mel would call if she would be gone long.

"Is Miss Lachly alright?" Pepper asked, concern slipping into her voice.

"Yes, I'm sure she's fine," Isabeau replied quickly and tried to shake off the uneasy feeling settling in her stomach.

"Pepper, take Miss Asmundor with you," Tony said dismissively, and went back to whatever he was doing. Pepper frowned but pushed Iz back up the stairs all the same.

Isabeau made sure to stay completely still and neutral as she saw the subtle changes in Pepper's body. The nearer they got to Tony's office, the more nervous she became and she gripped a black usb stick so hard that her knuckles went white. Her breathing became more rapid, and she even started perspiring across her forehead. Pepper looked up at her, surprised, when Iz placed a calming hand on her forearm, and tried to smile reassuringly.

Pepper nodded jerkily, and quickly led her to Tony's office, sitting down at his computer and began typing away.

"Keep a look out, won't you?" Pepper asked quickly, then added as an afterthought, "But don't look like you're keeping a look out."

Isabeau couldn't help the nervous giggle that slipped past her lips. She brought a hand up to her mouth the shut herself up and stood outside the room and leant against the frame, feeling very tired. She pulled her phone out, and frowned when Mel still hadn't messaged her. Iz herself had sent five text messages and 3 voicemails since she woke up this morning and noticed that even after Ben left Mel hadn't returned.

"Miss Asmundor," Obadiah said loudly, and she squeaked as he appeared out of nowhere.

"Mr Stane!" she nearly shouted, and blushed at his slow enigmatic smile. He chuckled at her embarrassment, and she finally noticed the way he looked over her body with a very pleased smile plastered firmly on his face. She felt a little creeped out.

Mel had been right.

Damn her.

"It's nice to see you again, Miss Asmundor. I hope Tony hasn't been keeping you and Pepper too busy?"

"Not any more than usual – well maybe a little more than usual," she smiled up at him, as she usually did, but now it felt very forced. Mel's warnings were ringing in her head with unsettling clarity.

"Is she in Tony's office?" he asked and gestured vaguely at the closed door. Iz nodded before she could stop herself, and he proceeded to open the door and step inside, just as Pepper was standing up to leave. She must have heard Iz's not so subtle shriek.

She stayed back as he began speaking with Pepper, and it was when he insinuated that Tony was crazy or had PTSD when the alarm bells really started screaming in her ears. She was suddenly paying rapt attention when he mentioned Mel.

"And I'm not sure if Miss Lachly is really helping, Pepper. She may even be encouraging this behaviour." He sounded sincere and concerned but Iz felt every vein in her body light up as he spoke about Mel like she was crazy enabler. He didn't say it in so many words, but both she and Pepper could read between the lines.

Both Pepper and Stane jumped slightly when the lamp across the room exploded and began to rain fire down onto the carpeted floor. Pepper quickly made her way out of the office, and waved a quick goodbye as she all but dragged Isabeau away and down the stairs where they ran into Agent Coulson of some really long name that Iz couldn't remember.

"You're getting the meeting of your life. Your office."

XXXxxXxXxxXXXx

Mel was vaguely aware of voices in the distance. They were mostly male, and they all sounded very nervous. She supposed that Obadiah Stane had that effect on people. She couldn't move that much, but she felt a sliver of warmth across her back that had managed to slip past all the chains around her.

Her head was throbbing and blood was drying under nose and over her mouth. The cuts and bruises would be gone in hours, however she had been so roughly manhandled over the last few hours that her left shoulder had popped from its socket and was kept like that by the way she was currently restrained.

The arm that was still mostly in piece was handcuffed to one of the chains. There was no weight on the arm, but she couldn't pull it towards her or push it away. The dislocated arm held up all her as he was handcuffed to a chain directly above her. The guards had gotten lazy and just used duct tape to stick her feet together. She really couldn't do anything in this position except aggravate her captors by spitting on their faces and laughing at them. One of them had even gone so far as to stick a crowbar into her gut and leave it there.

She could feel it slowly sliding out, and pain distracted her from the fact that she might actually die of blood loss. She couldn't help but laugh at the irony. The first time she tries to help out someone other than Iz, and she gets gutted like a fish. If she made it our here alive she knew that Iz would kill her. Well maybe she'd go easy on her if Mel could persuade Ben to ease her temper.

She laughed again at that, then hissed as the sagging crowbar moved with her laughter.

"I wouldn't do much except breathe for now, Miss Lachly," she heard Obadiah say from in front of her. She opened her eyes and smiled a bloody, toothy grin before closing her eyes again and breathed in deeply causing the crowbar to move again.

"Don't go to sleep just yet, Miss Lachly, I want you to listen when I bring in your little friend, kicking and screaming, and make you watch me crush her skull. I'm pretty sure she's not nearly as tough as you, is she, Melody?" he sneered.

Mel felt adrenaline course through her like lightning and her eyes snapped open. She lunged forward as much as she could and snarled viciously at Obadiah, blood and spittle falling from her mouth. He just laughed at her struggles and made to leave when she did something he didn't expect.

She grit her teeth through the pain of her dislocated shoulder as she pulled her legs up to her stomach, finally dislodging the crowbar and ripping her feet apart from the duct tape. Stane let out a surprised cry when she suddenly brought his head forward with one foot behind his neck and brought the other to break his nose with the heel of her foot. He stumbled slightly, but she managed to kick him across the face before the guards ran in.

"You touch her and I'll kill you!" she shrieked even as one of the guards wrapped his arms around her legs to keep her from lashing out. She shook as violently as she could until someone else hit her hard on the back of her head, and everything went black.

The next time she woke up she could hear Iz's choked sobs.

"Oh my god, Mel," she whispered hoarsely.

Mel opened her eyes and watched fondly as Iz began delicately pulling the duct tape away from her feet and quickly jumped up to pull it off of her mouth as well.

"You should see the other guys," Mel said softly and managed to crack a smile through her pain. Iz let out a hysterical sound stuck somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Mel's feet still hung just above the ground, and the pain from her arm was a distant ache in the back of her mind. The adrenaline had long since worn off, but her body was being flooded with beloved endorphins as it began to heal itself.

She didn't realise she'd closed her eyes until she felt Iz pulling at the handcuffs on her wrists. She let out a long sound as she heard Iz slowly start to crumble under the stress of the situation.

"Calm down, Iz," Mel said softly and opened her eyes to look into the tear-stained face of her best friend.

"I can't, Mel," she hiccupped, "I can't – the handcuffs."

"Yes you can, Iz, you know can," Mel said soothingly, "Don't make me break my own wrists. I'll be fine, just do it."

Iz could only nod as more tears dripped down her pale cheeks. Mel closed her eyes and waited for inevitable.

Agent Sitwell watched silently from afar as Isabeau Asmundor wrapped a hand around each handcuff that had Melody Lachly restrained. She gripped unto the link that held the handcuffs together and then she did nothing.

Within seconds he heard Miss Lachly let out soft sobs of pain and the handcuffs began to glow red hot. He realised, with a raised eyebrow, that Miss Asmundor was in fact melting the metal with her bare hands. Very soon Miss Lachly began to drop to the ground and her friend barely had enough time to catch her.

"Agent Sitwell, did you find anything?" Agent Coulson asked as he made his way toward him. The senior agent's view was thus far obscured by the machinery in the area, but he would soon see the two women huddling together.

"Yes, Agent Coulson. You'll see it in my report," he said just as calmly, and the other agent stood to watch for a moment before nodding. They walked, and left the girls to their own devices knowing they were more than able to handle themselves.

"Mel, you have to get up," Iz whispered hoarsely and heaved Mel onto her shoulder as gently as possible. The latter hissed in pain all the same. The endorphins would kick in eventually and the burns would all but vanish by the morning. Or the afternoon at the very latest.

XXxxxxXXXXXxxX

Mel grunted every half hour or so to prove she was still alive until Iz had walked them both back to their apartment. It was about six hours and by then the sun was starting to rise. Iz dumped her friend rather unceremoniously onto floor, then after falling to her knees, dumped herself on top of her friend.

"I thought having that much sex would make you lighter," Mel wheezed as the wind was knocked out of her.

"One: Fuck off. Two: why are you mentioning sex now?" Iz mumbled into the floor. Mel was lying on her back and Iz lay across Mel's stomach with her face in the floor.

"Because I can smell your sex walking up the stairs," she replied simply.

There was a slight tapping on the door.

"Told you so," Mel said smugly.

"Hey, babe, did I just see you carrying Mel on your shoulders up here?" a very concerned sounding British accent floated through the door.

"Yes, Benny, she went out and got drunk and brought her home and please go away," Iz groaned loudly. She was madly infatuated with the man. And his hands. And his fingers. And his tongue. But right now she needed to lie down with her face in the carpet and not do anything.

"Um, yeah, sure, okay. But you left one of your mobile phones at my house yesterday morning and someone, um Pepper? She's been calling you for the last hour."

"Since when do you fuck at his house?" Mel asked. Iz just groaned as she got up, trudged to the door and stared up at Benedict's adorably hopeful face. Then it occurred to her that she might still have blood on her clothing from Mel, so she snatched the phone from his open hand and slammed the door on his face.

There was a definite awkward silence before anyone spoke.

"I'll just come back later then, darling?"

"I'll call you."

"Yeah. Alright. Bye."

Iz slid down the door and felt exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

"When did you start fucking at his house?"

**XXXXxxxxxXXxXxXXXXX**

**Now, to give you a sneak peek into the minds of Agents Coulson and Sitwell, or not? Hm. You'll just have to wait, won't you?**

**Toodleszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz **


	11. SHIELD INCIDENT REPORT

**SHIELD INCIDENT REPORT**

**REPORT BY: AGENT SITWELL, JASPER DATE : ****CENSORED**** 2008**

**SUBECT ONE : [-****CENSORED-]****  
SUBJECT TWO : [-CENSORED-]**

**WRITTEN REPORT:**

I was called on duty to assist Agent **[-CENSORED-]** in an investigation of alleged illegal activities of **[-CENSORED-]**. **[-CENSORED-]** and Subject Two assisted in investigation. Upon arrival of **[-CENSORED-]** Subject Two removed herself from unit of agents stating that separating from the unit would cover more ground. Agent **[-CENSORED-]** and other agents were pre-occupied and therefore did not notice her movements.

I followed Subject Two into a different room of the facility where Subject One was being detained. From my vantage Subject One had suffered multiple lacerations, abrasions, contusions and possible concussion, however further medical treatment would have been required to assess full extent of damage. Subject One was however conscious and offering words of comfort to Subject Two.

Subject Two then proceeded to **[-CENSORED-]** attached to Subject One's wrists, thus freeing Subject One. Both Subjects left the building soon after.

**[-CENSORED-]**, with **[-CENSORED-]** suit known as '**[CENSORED]**' proceeded to attack all other persons left inside the building. For obvious reason I am unaware of the subjects whereabouts hereafter.

**RECOMENDATIONS : **More surveillance is required on Subject One to see full extent of unusual/abnormal abilities. Unlike Subject Two, a more direct approach is necessary however only after the co-dependence between subjects is not as severe.

See ongoing reports by Agent **[-CENSORED-]** for more information on Subject Two.

**SIGNED : JASPER SITWELL**


	12. AN - this is important

Hello my lovely readers

I hate it when author's put up another chapter that's not actually a chapter. I also hate hypocrites. Go figure.

I am here saying that this particular story has sort run away from me and in my attempts to get it under control I will be rewriting it from start to finish.

Let me just say that nothing will have changed. What you have read thus far has really just been a backstory that has gone on for far too long, and I know that you just can't wait until the Avengers arrive.

So this is what I'm going to do : I'm going to either delete this story completely and rewrite, or I can just delete the chapters and start from the beginning. I will be leaving this up here for three days – THREE DAYS – and then the new and improved story will start.

Thank you for bearing with me thus far and I apologise for any confusion/inconvenience this has put you through.

TOODLES


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